Start a Blog

Let me just say that starting my blog was one of the best decisions of my life! It’s kind of insane how much my attitude has changed since I started blogging. I feel full of energy, eager to create and grow my blog, and excited about good things to come. I truly love blogging! I would recommend blogging to anyone who is willing to put in the effort and time necessary to start a blog of your own. Now I’m not talking about using this blog as a hobby or something to do in your free time. I mean you are serious enough to purchase a domain and hosting for your blog and to treat your blog like a business that you are passionate about.

I wanted to start a blog for three years before I finally took the plunge and decided to invest my time and energy into creating a blog that I could cultivate. If you are ready to start your own blog, I am going to teach you how you can create a blog through BlueHost.

“START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS” Blake Mycoskie

Choosing Your Domain Name

The first thing you need to do when deciding to start a blog is to decide on a domain name. I strongly recommend taking as much time as necessary to decide on a domain name if you are serious about starting a blog. This name will stick with you for the life of your blog so make it something you love! It’s important to remember, you only want to decide on a name and learn if it’s available at this step. You will actually purchase your domain name when you decide on a hosting provider. If you already purchased your domain name, don’t worry the hosting provider I mention below can help you merge your current domain.

Hosting

The next thing you will want to do when starting a blog is to choose a hosting platform. I knew I wanted to use WordPress.org as my platform, since I wanted to hopefully monetize this blog in the future. However, I wasn’t sure what my options were as far as choosing a good hosting provider. After doing some research and asking around I decided the best hosting option for me was BlueHost.com.

I chose Bluehost because they have been the #1 hosting platform for almost 10 years. Bluehost sets everything up for you so you don’t start with a completely blank screen. They also helped walk me through how to manage my blog and even fixed my user errors when I somehow broke the permalinks on my page.

I chose BlueHost for my hosting needs because it was the cheapest option I found, offers 24/7 technical support, and gave me my domain name for free for a year. If you are interested in using Bluehost as your hosting provider you can sign up through my link which will grant you access to pricing as low as $3.95/month. To set up your account with Bluehost follow the steps below:

Set up Your Hosting Account

To get started, you can click my link here to ensure you receive the special offer pricing and the domain name free. Once you are on the Bluehost website, click “Sign Up Now”

You will then want to enter the domain name you chose for your site. You are able to purchase your domain name from the sign up process. If you already own your domain name you can still enter it in this section, it’ll just involved a few extra steps. Keep in mind your domain name comes free for the first year if you purchase hosting through Bluehost.

Once you have entered your domain name information, you will then be prompted to enter in your personal information such as name, address, etc. This is also where you will select which hosting package you once. Bluehost offers pricing for hosting services for 12, 24, and 36 months. The longer term you purchase the more you save! Just remember, you will need to renew your hosting and domain name every time your term runs out. So I recommend choosing the plan that will work best with your goals and needs.

There are a few other services you can choose to purchase when selecting your package information. I would recommend the Sitelock domain security as it keeps your personal information private on WHOIS databases. I chose to purchase this because I don’t want my information to be out there for everyone to see.

Once all of your information has been entered and you have selected your hosting package, you will need to create a password for your account. I recommend making sure it’s strong with a mixture of letters, numbers, and special characters. You never know when someone will try hacking into your website.

Installing WordPress

Now that you have created your account, you need to install WordPress. This is another reason I strongly recommend using Bluehost as they give you the ability to do this in a few easy steps.

In your cPanel, select the section title “MOJO Marketplace” and choose “One-Click Installs”. This should take you to a page called Scripts and Platforms. Once you’re there all you have to do is click on the WordPress icon at the very top of the screen.

A new installation window will open. Click on the green “Start” button that will begin the installation process for WordPress. Choose where you want to install WordPress and then click on “Check Domain”.

Click on “Show Advanced Options” which will allow you to set up your own username and password for your WordPress install. I strongly recommend changing your username from something other than admin and making your password very strong. Make sure the “Automatically create a new database for this installation” box is selected, unless you have a database already set up that you want to use.

Read the terms and conditions, and click the box that you have done so. Then click “Install Now”. This will show you a progress page, indicating how far along the installation is once WordPress is fully installed. You will then be provided with your site URL, admin URL, username, and password. Keep this information in a safe place.

All you have to do now is log into your WordPress site through your admin login URL. This will bring you to your WordPress dashboard and voila!